And hunt her up he did, with the result that Miss Taylor came to the
Whittaker place each day during the following week and Emily was, as
the captain said, “rigged out fresh from main truck to keelson.” In this
“rigging” Captain Cy and his two partners--Josiah Dimick had already
christened the pair “The Board of Strategy”--took a marked interest.
They were on hand when each new garment was tried on, and they approved
or criticised as seemed to them best.
“Ain't that kind of sober lookin' for a young one like Bos'n?” asked the
captain, referring to one of the new gowns. “I don't want her to look as
if she was dressed cheap.”
“Land sakes!” mumbled Miss Taylor, her mouth full of pins. “There ain't
anything cheap about it, and you'll find it out when you get the bill.
That's a nice, rich, sensible suit.”
“I know, but it's so everlastin' quiet! Don't you think a little yellow
and black or some red strung along the yards would sort of liven it
up? Why! you ought to see them Greaser girls down in South America of a
Sunday afternoon. Color! and go! Jerushy! they'd pretty nigh knock your
eye out.”
The dressmaker sniffed disdain.
“Cap'n Whittaker,” she retorted, “if you want this child to look like an
Indian squaw or a barber's pole you'll have to get somebody else to do
it. I'm used to dressing Christians, not yeller and black heathen women.
Red strung along a skirt like that! I never did!”
“There, there, Effie! Don't get the barometer fallin'. I was only
suggestin', you know. What do you think, Bos'n?”
“Why, Uncle Cyrus, I don't believe I should like red very much; nor the
other colors, either. I like this just as it is.”
“So? Well, you're the doctor. Maybe you're right. I wouldn't want you
to look like a barber's pole. Don't love Tad Simpson enough to want to
advertise his business.”
Miss Taylor's coming had other results besides the refitting of “Bos'n.”
She found much fault with the captain's housekeeping. It developed that
her sister Georgiana, who had been working in a Brockton shoe shop, was
now at home and might be engaged to attend to the household duties
at the Whittaker establishment, provided she was allowed to “go home
nights.” Georgiana was engaged, on trial, and did well. So that problem
was solved.
School in Bayport opens the first week in October. Of late there has
been a movement, headed by some of the townspeople who think city ways
are best, to have the term begin in September. But this idea has little
chance of success as long as cranberry picking continues to be our
leading industry. So many of the children help out the family means by
picking cranberries in the fall that school, until the picking season
was over, would be slimly attended.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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